Pura
Vida

Direct flight from EWR or JFK into Liberia (LIR) — the cheapest and most convenient entry for this trip. Pick up your 4WD rental car and head straight to the Rincón de la Vieja area, just 45 minutes away. The drive is easy and you'll have daylight to spare. Afternoon swim at the lodge pool, a cold Imperial beer, and your first howler monkey serenade at dusk.

An active volcano park that looks like another planet — boiling mud pots, sulphur fumaroles, turquoise hot springs, and a volcano summit trail. All four kids can do the Las Pailas loop (3.5 miles, easy terrain). In the afternoon: the waterfall at Cangreja or a horseback ride through the dry tropical forest. This is Guanacaste's best-kept secret — far fewer crowds than Arenal.

3.5-hour scenic drive east across Costa Rica to La Fortuna, with the iconic Arenal volcano appearing on the horizon as you approach. Check into your lodge — choose one with a volcano-view pool (Casa Luna Hotel & Spa and Hotel Lomas del Volcan both delivered strong reviews for late June). Afternoon: Mistico Hanging Bridges — 16 suspension bridges through primary rainforest, excellent for spotting toucans, howler monkeys, and sloths. Rainforest-meets-theme-park energy that all four kids will love.

Morning: La Fortuna Waterfall — 500 steps down to a 70-metre cascade with a cold-water swimming hole at the base. All kids can do it; the 7-year-old will need a hand on the steps back up. Bring swimwear and plan an hour in the pool. Afternoon: Tabacón or Baldi hot springs — geothermally heated pools built into the volcanic jungle. The experience of soaking in steaming natural pools surrounded by rainforest while it rains lightly is genuinely otherworldly.

The big activity day, all based out of La Fortuna. Morning: kayak or stand-up paddleboard on Lake Arenal with the volcano framed behind you — calm water, great for all ages including the youngest. Midday: the short Las Coladas trail in Arenal National Park for the best close-up views of the cone, eyes on the sky for turkey vultures riding the thermals off the summit. Afternoon: white-water tubing on the Balsa River — grade 2–3 rapids, exciting without being scary, minimum age 5 so all four kids qualify. Every La Fortuna operator runs it; book ahead. Last night with the volcano out the window.

Morning: leave La Fortuna for Monteverde — ~3 hours, partly on a famously bumpy mountain road that's fine with 4WD and a small thrill for the kids. The classic alternative is the "jeep–boat–jeep" transfer across Lake Arenal (~3 hours door to door, much smoother, ~$30pp) if you'd rather not drive it. Arrive as the cloud-forest mist settles in — Monteverde sits at 5,000 feet, noticeably cooler, dig out a light layer. Afternoon: ease in with the Selvatura or Sky Walk hanging bridges through the canopy, then Santa Elena town — artisan chocolate shop, the hummingbird gallery, butterfly garden.

Morning: pre-book a guided walk in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso). A good naturalist guide will spot glass frogs, resplendent quetzals, howler monkeys, and orchids you'd walk straight past without them — worth every dollar, and it sells out in June, so book ahead. Afternoon: zip-lining. Monteverde is the birthplace of canopy zip-lining and the operators here are the best in the world — Sky Adventures and Extremo are the family-friendly picks. Check the minimum weight for the 7-year-old (typically 30kg / 66lbs); if they're not quite there, the Sky Walk bridges are a beautiful same-treetop alternative. Your 14- and 12-year-olds will be obsessed.

Morning: drop down off the mountain to the coast — Monteverde to Sámara is about 2.5–3 hours, the last stretch flat and easy. Check into your beach base. The afternoon has no plan and needs none: walk straight into the warm, calm water, let the kids burn off the car energy, and find an open-air spot for ceviche and a sunset. Sámara faces west — the sunsets are the entertainment. This is the corner of the country where the trip downshifts from "adventure" to "holiday."

Sámara is one of the calmest, safest swimming beaches on the Pacific coast — a reef across the bay keeps the surf gentle, so the youngest can wade while the bay's ends throw up tidy 1-metre waves that are textbook beginner-surf. Morning: a group surf lesson for the older kids — reliable, forgiving rollers; your 14- and 12-year-olds will be standing by the end of the session, and the 10-year-old close behind. Afternoon: a dolphin-watching sea-kayak tour out toward Isla Chora, or simply float in the 84°F water with nothing to do. Dinner in town — Sámara punches above its size: wood-fire grill at El Lagarto, Italian at Gusto, the bakery, the ceviche shacks.

Worth the wander up the coast — Nosara is about 45 minutes north on a bumpy road (4WD earns its keep), and it's the surf-and-food capital of this stretch of Nicoya. Playa Guiones is a vast, dramatic beach and the place to learn — dozens of schools, beach breaks that suit beginners (a touch more shore-break and current than Sámara, so this is the older kids' surf day; keep the 7-year-old on the sand or in the shallows with a parent). Lunch and dinner here are the best on the peninsula — La Luna right on the beach, Burgers & Beers Reggae Bar, the Bodhi Tree café, beachfront sushi. Drive back to Sámara for the night, or linger for the Guiones sunset.

The do-nothing day — the one the whole trip has been building toward. Drive 10 minutes south to Playa Carrillo: a postcard arc of palm-backed sand, almost no development, calm water, picnic tables in the shade. Bring a cooler. Older kids can rent boards back in Sámara to practise what they learned; younger ones build the day's eighteenth sandcastle. Optional add-ons if anyone's restless: a horseback ride along the beach at low tide, a stand-up paddle in the bay, or a quick boat trip out to Isla Chora to snorkel. Otherwise: read, swim, nap, repeat. Last big dinner in Sámara.

One last morning on the beach — no agenda, just the Pacific. Drive to Liberia airport (LIR) takes about 2 hours from Sámara on a smooth paved road. Drop the rental car, fly home Thursday. An afternoon or early-evening departure works perfectly — no brutal 5am wake-up — and you're back at EWR or JFK the same night. Everyone will be salty, lightly sunburned, and already arguing about where to go next.